In the prior art, the problem is known to connect two components with each other with a distance arranged therebetween. This is especially a problem if the first component has a component opening indeed arranged close to the edge of the component but no fastening thread or the like is present at the component itself or on the inner side of the component opening. In this case, it is necessary to provide first of all a fastening possibility, as for example a threaded element, close to the component opening by means of an appropriate connector, especially an edge connector. Further, a connector has to be fastened in this component opening so that the first component can be connected to a further component.
For this purpose, brace-like or clamp-like connectors are laterally plugged onto the edge of a component. Such connectors are for example described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,706 and DE 103 58 379 A1. These clamp-like connectors being movable onto the edge of the component each have an appropriate fastening element which is positioned at the component opening by means of the connector. This fastening element is for example a hexagonal nut having an inner thread which is either connected integrally to the connector or which is held therein. Due to the clamp-like structure, the known connectors have two legs being arranged oppositely to each other. The edge of the component is received between these legs. Therefore, it is necessary that the distance of the oppositely arranged legs is adjustable to the thickness of the first component. As the two opposing legs of the connectors of U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,706 and DE 103 58 379 A1 are, however, connected to each other by means of a rigid piece of wall, these connectors provide no freedom of adjustment with respect to the distance of the two oppositely arranged legs if the component thickness exceeds or deceeds the predefined distance of the two legs in the connector.
DE 103 54 062 A1 and DE 20 2008 016 230 U1 each describe a connector at which the oppositely to each other arranged legs are connected by means of a film hinge. This film hinge is characterized by a certain flexibility so that here components with different thickness between the two legs are receivable. As, however, the two legs are permanently connected by means of the film hinge and across the complete width of the legs, for example a component of high thickness results in an excessive spreading of the legs which are connected to each other. By means of this spreading, for example the fastening element in the lower leg of the connector is no longer arranged coaxially with respect to the component opening and the opening in the upper leg of the connector. This has the disadvantage that a fastening screw which is inserted into the connector cannot be fastened anymore in the thread of the lower leg. Further, it may come to misalignment between the two components if the upper leg also does not abut the first component two-dimensionally due to the spreading based on the thickness of the first component.
DE 103 54 062 A1 and DE 20 2008 016 230 U1 describe also the combination of such an edge connector with a tolerance-compensating element. For this purpose, the upper leg of the connector is provided with a threaded element in which an adjusting element is guided. As the thread of the threaded element has a thread turn direction opposite to the thread turn direction of the inner thread of the fastening element at the lower leg, an adjusting element is displaced until abutment of the second component during the screwing in of a fastening screw. Only then, a tightening of the fastening screw within the connector occurs.
DE 10 2009 035 874 A1 also describes a clamp-like edge connector which can be plugged onto the edge of a component with a component opening. A fastening element with an inner thread is molded or formed in the lower portion of the clamp-like connector, wherein the fastening element can be positioned at the exit of the component opening of the component by means of the connector. The edge connector is formed L-like for being adjustable to different component thicknesses. The fastening element is held by means of flexible webs at the shorter L-leg. Indeed, these webs are deflectable so that components with different thickness can be received in the edge connector but the retaining of the fastening element by means of the flexible webs requires a large installation space at the edge of the component. Further, the fastening element is deflected by the flexible webs along a circular path when the edge connector is adjusted to a specific component thickness. This leads to misalignments between the fastening element and a fastening screw to be screwed into the connector.
It is thus the object of at least certain implementations of the present invention to provide a connector, especially an edge connector, for a component with a component opening arranged close to its edge which is flexibly adjustable to different component thicknesses without creating thereby inner misalignments.